New Year's Kiss
by OnePirateWolf96
Summary: Part 1 of series Flaming Heart. For New Year, I wrote this Little piece of work for Pokemon Sword and Shield. Contains Raihan/Kabu as main pairing, with a hint of Leon/Sonia, Milo/Nessa, and some weird mix of Bede/Hop/Gloria/Marnie. Enjoy!


**Well, here's a little something I wrote for New Year's Eve. Hopefully it's not too rushed, I started it a bit too late and had to hurry with the writing a bit, since I wanted it published in time. **

**Enjoy, and let me know what you think!**

**Happy New Year!**

Raihan arrives well on time at the annual New Year's party in Hammerlocke. He's accompanied by two of his gym trainers, Sebastian and Camilla. Aria was invited, too, but she said she's already made plans to go see her family. Good for her. He and his two companions separate as soon as they enter, each having their own plans on how to spend the evening.

There are people everywhere, chatting, drinking and catching up with friends they haven't seen in a while. Some have brought a Pokémon with them, as is allowed. Raihan decided against bringing any of his. Not that he doesn't want to, but most of his Pokémon aren't really good being in crowds of people.

But Raihan's not here to just chat this year. He's here with a goal in mind. A certain grey-haired gym leader to be precise. He and Kabu have been flirting for weeks, now, and he figures this will be a good opportunity to go a bit forward with the whole thing. Get up to a new level, so to speak.

At least he's... pretty certain they've been flirting. He knows he has, and Kabu had responded well. Time to find out tonight. Worst thing that can happen is Kabu turns him down, which he can survive. Maybe. Probably.

Luckily, he's as tall as he is, so looking over peoples heads to find something, or in this case, someone, is not as difficult as it would be for most. Now to scout for a familiar, grey-haired head... Kabu likes to not be late, so he's probably here already. If anyone's going to be late, it's Leon. Nevermind that he's been here tons of times already.

The first familiar people he spots are Milo and Nessa. Milo has actually left his hat at home this year, and Nessa looks absolutely gorgeous in her dress. They make their way around and mingle with the other guests, even posing for a few pictures.

Sonia shows up to greet them as well, looking almost as good as Nessa in her brand-new dress. Raihan knows it's new because she sent him a picture asking if it looks okay on her when she was buying it. It does look really nice. He asked if she was dressing up for a special someone and she blurted out a bunch of nonsense and hung up on him. He took it as a yes.

Piers and Marnie arrived some time ago. Piers started the evening by downing a glass of champagne and is now starting on his second one. Marnie is just having some juice, being too young for anything alcoholic. She brought her Morpeko with her. It's sitting on her shoulder looking around excitedly. It's even wearing a little bowtie.

Melony is at the party in a nice, well-fitting white dress, accompanied by two of her children. Gordie is nowhere to be seen, but Raihan is sure he's here somewhere.

A sudden, huge commotion at the front door indicates Leon has arrived. And there he is, Charizard in tow. He's even arrived early, which means the Charizard probably led him straight here, not even giving him a chance to get lost. His cape is gone, and he's wearing a really nice-looking suit, but the snapback is still on his head even on a New Year's party.

Leon notices Raihan immediately (hard not to, with how tall he is) and makes his way over through the crowd.

"Hey, Raihan!" Leon greets him happily, mostly ignoring the gawking people around them. "How's your evening started? Making New Year's resolutions? Or looking for a special someone to share a kiss with?" He nudges Raihan with a smirk on his face, knowing exactly what he's talking about.

"Good to see you too, Leon." Raihan greets him, raising an eyebrow. "You know resolutions aren't really my thing." He decides to ignore the other question, for now at least. There's no way Leon is just going to let it go, but he can at least delay it a bit. "And speaking of kissing and resolutions, are you finally going to confess to Sonia?" Leon's had a crush on her for ages, but still hasn't said anything. If he does, it's about time.

"Maybe I am." Leon responds proudly. He's really planning on making a move tonight, huh?

"Well, good for you. About time."

"But you are looking for a special someone to kiss?" Leon is just not letting that go. "Maybe someone with grey hair?"

He knows. "How the hell do you know that?" Raihan has to ask, against his better judgment.

Leon just laughs, the bastard. "You haven't exactly been subtle, you know?"

"Does everyone here know?" Raihan groans. Surely not everyone, right? He can't have been that obvious, right?

"I think at least most of the gym leaders, but I don't know about other people." Leon shrugs. Well, most gym leaders don't really keep secrets from each other, and secrets spread fast amongst them. He probably shouldn't be surprised.

"Oh, whatever." He finally gives up. "Go find Sonia or something and try not to get lost." With that he leaves Leon on his own. He has a certain someone to find, after all.

Gloria and Hop arrived just after Leon. They're currently sitting on one of the many couches that are scattered all around the place. Gloria has a small Snom on her lap, petting it every now and then while chatting with Hop. He's lamenting not thinking about bringing a Pokémon of his own. Probably would have brought his Doubwool, knowing how much he loves it.

Marnie has noticed them and is making a beeline for them, Piers in tow. It's hard to say if he doesn't want to be left alone or if he doesn't want to leave Marnie out of sight. Maybe a bit of both? Marnie makes herself at home on Gloria's other side after greeting her with a hug and Hop with a small wave. Morpeko sits on her lap and soon moves to chatter with the Snom.

Opal arrives with her protégé, Bede. She leaves to talk to some friends of hers, and the kid makes his way to the other children, who immediately move to make some space for him on the couch. It is now filled with children. Hopefully there won't be any more of them coming, or they'll have to stand or sit on the floor.

Piers is still hanging out around the children, seemingly using them as a bit of a buffer, now sipping at what Raihan thinks is his third or fourth glass of champagne. He looks like he would rather be hiding in some corner. Or not be at the party at all. He has probably been hoping he wouldn't have to come to these anymore since Marnie's now the Gym Leader of Spikemouth.

Finally, Raihan finds Kabu. The Fire-type leader is sipping champagne near a table on the other side of the room, just finishing up chatting with Melony. She is leaving just as Raihan is approaching them. He thinks he hears her say something about Gordie before she disappears into the crowd.

He makes his way over to Kabu. It's strange to see him out of his gym uniform and compression shirt, but looks very nice in his black and red attire. Very nice, indeed. He doesn't appear to have any Pokémon with him, but Raihan is willing to bet he has a Sizzlipede or two tucked away in his coat, considering how he doesn't do cold at all.

"Hey, Mr. Kabu!" Raihan cheerfully greets the older man with a huge smile and a hand on the shoulder. He feels the solid muscles under the clothes and yeah, that definitely feels good. "Fancy seeing you here!"

"Don't sound so surprised." Kabu, for his part is perfectly calm, eyeing the hand on his shoulder with some curiosity. "We both attend the New Year's celebration here every year."

That's true.

"True." Raihan admits. "Still good to see you, you know outside of official gym business and matches."

"You're not wrong. As gym leaders, we have rather busy lives." Kabu looks at him with a small smile. It's giving Raihan a funny feeling in his stomach. It's a good feeling he wouldn't mind experiencing more.

"At least we get a bit of a break sometimes, like Christmas and New Year." Raihan points out. They're not on official business here. Not really.

"Yes, I don't believe I've seen you without your phone before. You must really be taking a break from things."

"Well, it's in my coat pocket. Figured I'd give Rotom a little break, too."

Raihan moves a bit to lean against the table, finding a glass of champagne there as well. Hopefully it doesn't belong to anyone. Nobody seems to be claiming it for themselves, so it's Raihan's now. He looks around a little, trying to come up with something to talk about. There's a tray with some kind of cheese snacks, so Raihan grabs a couple to have something to nibble on for a bit. Kabu doesn't seem to feel the need to chat more, which suits him just fine. For now, at least.

"Hey, look. The countdown's about to start!" The clock is indeed ticking closer and closer to midnight. Only seconds to go, now.

"So it is." Kabu glances at the clock before turning back to Raihan. He sips his champagne and looks at him thoughtfully. "Do you already know who you'd like your new year's kiss with?"

Raihan startle at the blunt question. He tries to mask his surprise by stretching his arms over his head, looking the other way and trying to appear casual. Judging by Kabu's small smirk, he doesn't succeed very well. "I might," he says, trying to go for a coy and suggestive tone.

"You should go find them, then." Kabu tells him, now not looking at him anymore, focusing on the other people around them. "Before you miss your chance."

"Well," Raihan starts, lazily dragging out the word, getting Kabu to look at him again. He grins, showing of his fangs. "I think I'm pretty good right here." He makes a show of slowly looking Kabu up and down, letting the older man know exactly who's on his mind.

"Is that so." Kabu manages to make it sound like both a question and a statement. He looks like he's about to add something, but is interrupted by the now starting ten second countdown.

**Ten!**

Raihan gives Kabu a casual shrug. Apparently no more talking for a bit, now. With all the people joining in on the countdown, it's almost impossible to hear anything anyway.

**Nine!**

People are scampering around to find that someone they want a kiss with, so Raihan and Kabu almost squish themselves against the wall to avoid getting shoved around.

**Eight!**

Raihan thinks he sees Sebastian attempting to make a move on Melony's daughter. Not a very good idea, really. He considers making his way over to warn him off, but ultimately decides against it. Some lessons need to be learnt the hard way, right?

**Seven!**

Hop and Gloria seem to be holding hands, Raihan notices. But at the same time, Hop also seems to be holding Bede's hand and Gloria is holding Marnie's. Makes him wonder what's up with those kids, anyway. But then again, it's not really any of his business, now is it? But he is awfully curious. He'll have to ask someone later.

**Six!**

Nessa and Milo are standing awfully close together, whispering something to each other.

**Five!**

Bea is gently shaking Allister awake, probably to let him know the fireworks are about to start soon. The boy all but jumps up on the couch, trying to climb on his sister's shoulders to get a better view over all the people. His normal shyness is nowhere to be seen.

**Four!**

Morpeko has now hopped onto Charizard's head. Maybe it, too, wants a good view of the fireworks. Or maybe it thinks Charizard looked lonely, seeing how Leon is now elsewhere, counting down with Sonia.

**Three!**

Raihan slides a step closer to Kabu, almost close enough to touch, bringing the man's attention back to him.

**Two!**

He carefully reaches out and grabs Kabu's champagne glass and puts it on the table, along with his own, and focuses all his attention on the older man.

**One!**

Raihan cups Kabu's face with both hands and tilts his head up, tracing those cheekbones with his thumbs, looking into the older man's eyes for any hint he doesn't want this.

**Zero! Happy New Year!**

Not finding any objection, he bends down and slots their lips together. Kabu makes a soft noise, something Raihan definitely wants to hear more of, and pushes into the kiss, grabbing on to Raihan's shoulders to pull them closer.

Fireworks are going off in the distance, all loud booms and bright colours, but Raihan barely notices them. Fireworks could wait, at least for a little bit longer. Right now, he definitely doesn't want to interrupt what he's doing.

Raihan notices in mild bemusement how Kabu had to stand on his tippy-toes in order to reach him, even when he's bending down slightly. He moves one hand to the nape of Kabu's neck to play with the soft hairs there, before moving on to grabbing the back of his head, messing up the hair something good. In turn, he feels Kabu's hands wander from his shoulders, one into his hair and the other softly stroking his cheek. Meanwhile Raihan's other hand is running down the older man's back.

He has to be careful to hold in his impulse to slip said hand under Kabu's shirt, to feel the warm skin and the strong muscles underneath. Or even worse, (or better?) stick both his hands down the older man's pants to pull them even closer. But that wouldn't be very appropriate at a party. In front of children. Yeah, no. It can wait until later. After the party. There's no way Kabu's going back to Motostoke and leaving him alone tonight. Right?

The moment is suddenly rather rudely interrupted by a low, crass whistle. Raihan reluctantly breaks away from the kiss to face a madly grinning Leon, Sonia right next to him with his cap. Apparently, he did manage his confession after all. Good for him.

Right now, though, he gives them both his best glare, letting them know exactly how he feels about the interruption.

"Hey, now you guys!" Leon is completely unaffected by Raihan's glare. Unfortunately he knows Raihan too well. "I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a New Year's _kiss_, not a New Year's make out like lovesick teenagers." He takes on a mockingly condescending tone, which doesn't really work, since he's still grinning like some kind of loon. "There are children here, you know."

"Oh, bugger of," Raihan mutters. He's now resting his cheek on the top of Kabu's head, his own head turned so he can still glare at Leon. Kabu's forehead is resting against his chest and he's sure he can feel the warm breath through his clothes.

"Thank you, Leon." Kabu turns his head to look at the man. "I think we can manage now." His tone leaves no room for protests. Leon shrugs, gives Raihan a thumbs up, and grabs Sonia to go watch the fireworks together. Most people, who have also been staring at them, follow his que and scatter. Minding their own business.

Raihan sighs, relieved. He angles his head slightly to see the fireworks without having to move too much. They sure are beautiful again this year. His hands are already wandering all over Kabu's body. Arms, shoulders, neck, cheek, hair, back, arms, over and over again. Keeping it above the waist, though. At least for now.

"Spend the night at my place?" he whispers into Kabu's ear. Waits nervously for the answer. He doesn't have to wait long, as Kabu tilts his head up and presses a kiss to his neck.

"Yes."


End file.
